Huckabee and Trump not running for president in 2012: Will Sarah Palin?

They're Dropping Like Flies

Since we last checked in, Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump have both officially announced that they won't be running for the Republican presidential nomination, leaving Sarah Palin as the potential GOP field's sole remaining reality TV star AND its sole Fox News contributor. Do their departures mean she's more likely to run?

Possibly. Huckabee's departure in particular leaves evangelicals and social conservative voters up for grabs. Nate Silver, for one, thinks the Huckabee bow-out helps Palin, should she want to run. Both Trump's and Huckabee's announcements were greeted with gleefulenthusiasm by the blog Conservatives4Palin (which was started by Palin aide Rebecca Mansour). Palin, meanwhile, has been more active than usual on Twitter over the past week, opining on the debt crisis and the anniversary of Israel's independence. (She also blew a couple of kisses in the direction of the Weekly Standard and the National Review, both of which were instrumental in her '08 rise to prominence, but which have largely turned up their noses of late.) And in the clearest sign she's serious about running after all, the Washington Post reported yesterday that Palin's PAC sent out 400,000 direct mailers titled "2012 Can't Come Fast Enough." Yet her decision, apparently, cannot come slowly enough. The Palin Meter moves back up to 43 percent.